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The Jupiter Quartet has announced the appointment of Mélanie Clapiès as its new violinist, succeeding Nelson Lee and joining violinist Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel and cellist Daniel McDonough.
From autumn 2025, Clapiès will join the ensemble, as well as the School of Music faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where the Jupiter Quartet has been in residence since 2012.
The French violinist has enjoyed an international career as a soloist and chamber musician. After studies in Lyon and Paris, Clapiès moved to the US where she received her M.M. and A.D. from the Yale School of Music and completed a Doctoral degree at the Manhattan School of Music.
As an educator, she joins the University of Illinois having previously taught on the violin faculty at Butler University since 2022, as well as conservatories in Toulon and Bordeaux as well as at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris.
Outgoing violinist Lee has performed with the Jupiter Quartet for 24 years. His final performance with the group will be on 26 September 2025 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Lee departs the group to take up a position at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He said: ’It is with immense gratitude that I say goodbye to my friends in the Jupiter Quartet. I feel indebted to all of them for being the most generous and inspiring collaborators through this journey that we started together in 2001.
’I have learnt so much from them over the years as we have grown from life as students to having our own wonderful families. I know they will thrive in this next chapter with Mélanie and wish them all the best going forward.’
The members of the Jupiter Quartet thanked Lee ’for over twenty inspiring years as our close colleague and friend.’ They welcomed Clapiès, describing her as ’a musician with a wide-ranging background in both Europe and the United States, a wonderful teacher, and an absolutely beautiful player, full of insight and creativity.
’We can’t wait to explore new ground with her as a quartet, and we welcome her and her family to our quartet family and our home community of Champaign-Urbana!’
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